


The perks of being a cat person

by MayumiSato



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M, Made for the "Non D-sney Fairy Tales" event at usukustwiceperyear.tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 03:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13825287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayumiSato/pseuds/MayumiSato
Summary: Prince Alfred, while doing a quest to gain the right to the throne of Spades, ends up walking into a mysterious castle and meeting someone who will change his life and goals. -> Based on “The White Cat”.





	The perks of being a cat person

**The perks of being a cat person**

 

 

The king of Spades had a strange luck when he had his children. While some royal families struggled to produce a single heir and experienced great dramas in this regard, the king and queen of Spades were presented with the unlikely fortune of having triplets.

On one hand, that was very positive, as the king now had not one, but three choices from an heir to his throne. On the other hand, that was a bit of a problem, as the king now didn’t have ONE, but **_three_** equally valid heir choices. This certainly complicated the question of who would inherit the throne.

Usually, a king would simply leave his throne to the eldest and give positions or money as a comfort to younger children. However, with triplets, he had no way of knowing who was the eldest and he couldn’t choose just based on personal preferences or his other sons would be upset and not help the chosen brother rule.

His children were the patient and devoted Matthew; the ambitious and audacious Alan, and Alfred who was... well... Alfred was creative and intelligent but he didn’t have a very appropriate personality for a king.

Extremely coward despite being the strongest of his brothers, ridiculously indecisive and much more interested in inventing strange machines than in politics, nothing in Alfred suggested that he could become a good king for Spades. The king was almost certain that the day he ascended the throne would be the day when Spades would mysteriously decay overnight, as had happened to the kingdom of Hearts a few years before.

Honestly, the king would prefer for Alfred to simply stay in his corner, without causing too much problem. His expectations for this son were as small as possible and yet he could still get disappointed with him in moments like this. If Alfred only gave up the throne and let the choice be between his two brothers, everything would be way more simple but _nope_. He made a point of saying he wanted to become king. Probably because he was competitive and stubborn. Tsk.

As there was no way to get any of the three (let alone Alfred) to give up the throne, the king passed a test to them, saying that he who succeeded to fulfill it with greater success would become the ruler of the Spades Empire. The challenge was to bring to their mother, the queen, the most impressive dress they could find in the world.

To achieve this, each of them won a large bag of coins and a horse to go out on their journey. They would have a year to get the dress in question, which seemed like enough time for them to check out all the possible options.

And so, the king sent them around the world, deciding to take advantage of that one year of privacy to have more time with his queen and some peace and quiet. After all, three nineteen years old could give too much headache to an old man.

 

* * *

 

 

Alfred Frederick Jones I, as it was said, was an indecisive person and that test made it very obvious. Having to choose a dress and stand firm in that decision, when there was so much at stake, was so difficult! Besides, Alfred didn’t know anything about dresses! He went through several cities, buying several different dresses and always changing his mind about what he was looking for. The maximum time he'd spent satisfied with a dress had been a week. Urgh. It was as if his father had purposely chosen a test that he knew would be a problem for Alfred.

After six months of travel, Alfred was almost broke and carrying with him several dresses that didn’t seem good enough for him. People were starting to confuse him with a travelling merchant when he entered a new town with his horse and his many bags filled of dresses.

After thinking about what he could do about it, he decided that maybe the problem was because he had spent all his time looking in Spades when another kingdom could have a dress quite different from his expectations and therefore impressive enough to be his final choice. He was out of money, but if he resold his ten dresses, he might be able to afford a quality new dress. Heck, people were already thinking he was a merchant, anyway!

Diamonds was a kingdom with pretty awesome clothes, wasn’t it? He would surely discover something interesting there. The journey to Diamonds’ central market was long and full of fees to be paid on the way, but if he took a shortcut through the forest, he would probably be able to get there in a few days with no problems.

Or so he thought.

However, in a week's travel through the forest, Alfred came to the conclusion that he was completely lost.

Who could guess that that forest was so big?! And those trees were all so similar! Way too similar! That forest was so badly planned! Mother Nature should be ashamed to create such a poorly structured place!

Alfred spent seven days lost in the forest, hungry and carrying ten dresses on a horse that seemed even more fed up with that situation than he was.

He could guess that in the meantime, Matthew should have been giving some final tweaks to his perfect dress that he found months ago, and Allan, who probably made his choice the first week, was probably just having a good time with his time and remaining money now. It was so annoying to think about that.

On the seventh night, Alfred was wandering over the injustices of life when suddenly a heavy rain began to fall over him, forcing him to run on his horse through the forest, searching for anything that could shelter them.

To his surprise, the shelter he found wasn’t an abandoned hut in the woods that clearly belonged to a witch or something like that. Instead, he found a castle, a legitimate castle. Large, made of stone, surrounded by a grating wall, with a huge front garden with the Heart’s symbol engraved on its gates. It seemed to have been an important place one day, even though it looked rather abandoned at the moment, with the plants practically covering the place.

Seeing that definitely puzzled Alfred. There was no way that was part of the fallen kingdom, right? Although he was intrigued by what he was seeing, the rain pouring heavily on his head didn’t allow him to stand there and carefully examine the architecture of that place and ponder what had happened to its original owner. He had to enter and seek shelter and, since the castle was abandoned, he saw no problem in climbing the garden wall to the other side.

Probably that castle must have belonged to the old kingdom of Hearts a few years ago but now it was just another land with no owner. It was impossible for anyone to live in such a place in the present.

As he jumped inside the estate, Alfred started trying to open the gate inside to let his horse in, and was interrupted by a sound that made him jump and made every hair on his body stand up.

The sound in question had been a meow.

HEY. Before accusing him of being a coward, keep in mind THAT IT WAS A CREEPY ABANDONED CASTLE AND HE WASN’T EXPECTING A CAT TO BE HANGING NEARBY!

To Alfred's surprise, as he examined his surroundings better, he noticed that a bunch of cats had surrounded him, staring at him curiously. Those cats looked completely different from one another and didn’t seem to have any connection between them other than the fact that they were all cats. Curiously, they were mewing not at him, but at each other, almost as if they were having a chat.

Alfred, in particular, was more of a fan of dogs than of cats and payed no more attention to them as he tried to help his horse to get inside. That was until he felt a strange sensation in his leg, and realized that one of the cats was carrying a key in his mouth and pressing it against him.

Uh… That couldn’t be the key to the gate Alfred was trying to open, right? It would be too much of a coincidence.

He decided to test it out, just in case, picking up the key and leading it to the padlock in the gate.

Click.

"Who the fuck trained these cats?" he thought as his horse finally entered the property.

Alfred ran with his horse and his bags to the entrance of the castle. It had a very wide entrance and, lucky him, it was open, which allowed him to put his horse inside instead of having to go around the castle looking for the stables. It was raining cats and dogs outside. Quite literally, it almost seemed.

As soon as he entered the castle, Alfred came across a large room with a main staircase, covered by a nearly brown carpet, which must have been red one day, leading to the next floor. That first room was huge and, looking sideways in the darkness, Alfred couldn’t tell where it ended.

Examining better the place, with eyes a little more accustomed to the darkness, he noticed a surprisingly clean fireplace in a corner near the stairs. If only he had something to light it...

He was glancing at the fireplace when suddenly a sudden sharp sound frightened him. When he turned to see what it was, it was the darn cats meowing again. There were a good number of them around now, and their eyes shone in the darkness. Thinking about it, it was kinda weird how that place wasn’t stinking of cat pee, considering how many of them seemed to be living there.

One of the cats approached Alfred and bit his cape, trying to pull him away from the fireplace. Alfred scowled at him and made a "shoo shoo" noise, trying to push him away instead.

Hmpf! For trained cats, they'd certainly become very ill-mannered over time!

His attempt to push the cat away made all the other cats start to yell at him, at each other, and even at his horse. More and more cats began to come from every corner of the palace, filling the room. It was almost surreal.

He was starting to worry if there was not the possibility that those cats would gather around to devour him. He looked away at the staircase, with this concern in mind, trying to think of an escape route that wouldn’t force him back into that rain when he saw something much more dreadful than a multitude of hungry cats.

He saw the figure of a person coming down the stairs in the moonlight.

In such a strange castle, there was no way that this was just an ordinary inhabitant, just coming to offer his greetings to Alfred and complain about the horse in the middle of his hall. He had to be a ghost or at least a criminal with a gang of cats. There was no other possible explanation for a human being comfortably installed in such a place.

Staring at the mysterious person, while gaping wide-eyed, totally freaking out inside despite not uttering a single sound on the outside, Alfred started to prepare himself for death. That was it. The end of Alfred Frederick Jones I. A prince killed by a bunch of cats and a ghost in the middle of an abandoned castle. That was pretty tragic. He could only hope people would write “fuck cats, dogs for life” on his epitaph.

"Look, I didn’t want to say anything but why are you looking at me like that? You're seriously creeping me out. This is my house. I'm the one surprised to see you here,” said the presumed ghost as he made his way down the stairs and confronted Alfred, who was shaking from head to toe.

Alfred tried to say "Why are you being so casual?! There's something wrong with you if you find it normal to live in this clearly haunted place!" however he was trembling so much he only managed to stammer out some agitated sounds that didn’t even make sense together.

The ghost approached him and, as Alfred starred in terror, all the cats moved out of his way, leaning towards him as if bowing to him.

Alfred couldn’t take the suspense any longer. He closed his eyes and hoped his death would be quick and painless.

“Wow, you're soaked. No wonder you can’t even speak. You must be about to have hypothermia! You're shaking so hard. It’s really pitiful.” said the worried voice of the supposed ghost. "I'm going to light the fire for you. Sorry if my servants bothered you about the fireplace. They wanted you to come upstairs to meet me before you settled down here.”

Though the ghost spoke so politely, Alfred didn’t let himself be fooled. He kept his eyes closed and continued waiting for his unavoidable ridiculous death.

But then he heard sounds of footsteps retreating and then reappearing and a series of different noises until finally he felt a pleasant warmth coming from somewhere on the room and a scent of burning wood. Finally having the guts to open his eyes, he saw the supposed ghost, using a fan to control the smoke coming out of the now lit fireplace. The ghost looked much more human under the gentle glow the flames. Especially considering he was fearfully and awkwardly adjusting the fire, while trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the fireplace.

The presumed ghost was in practical, comfortable red clothes that looked clean and in a better state than Alfred's, though they were still a bit crumpled. He had a medium-size, slim body, a messy wheat-colored hair, a slightly wrinkled nose, and huge eyebrows.

The more Alfred looked, the more the stranger looked like a normal guy a bit older than himself.

Even so, Alfred didn’t know if he really should lower his guard just because the guy in front of him was kinda cute and continued to stare at him in silence, expecting the worst case scenery.

That made the ghost turn to him with an expression of confusion and begin to approach him.

Okay, NOW that was it! He was going to die. The strange fellow had only lit the fire to see better his future crime, and now, Alfred would be tragically murdered.

He closed his eyes, waiting for... hm, maybe a sense of inexplicable pain... He wasn’t sure. How did ghosts kill people?

Instead he felt a hand gently touching his shoulder and immediately he shouted,

 “YOU CAN TOUCH ME?!”

Which made the "ghost" fall back on the floor and put a hand over his chest.

“Bloody hell. Why _wouldn’t_ I be able to?” he said breathlessly, looking at Alfred with a little bit of a grudge. "I thought you couldn’t talk. Why did you keep quiet for about ten minutes and then, out of nowhere, started yelling nonsense? Were you waiting for the right moment to kill me from a heart attack?”

"‘Kill’? Wait, what. You’re not a ghost?” Alfred asked, pointing incredulously at the guy who was now being surrounded by worried cats, meowing at him. Well, if that guy was a ghost, he wasn’t a ghost with much dignity if Alfred could scare him with a scream.

"Obviously I'm not a ghost, you utter idiot,” the stranger replied, tapping his own clothes to adjust them and getting up while saying ‘it was nothing, let me take care of it’ in a soft voice to the cats. Man, cat people were weird.

"Could a ghost do that?" the stranger asked, walking to Alfred and slapping the top of his head.

It was not strong enough to hurt, but enough to make his head move down a bit.

Ouch. That had been part evidence, part revenge.

“Hey! I didn’t think a human could live here!” Alfred said in protest. "You can’t blame me for being surprised to see a normal person living in an abandoned castle with two thousand cats!”

Alfred's argument seemed to have worked because the stranger ended up looking slightly guilty and uncomfortable.

"I'm not exactly..." he was saying, when suddenly the first rays of the morning came through the window, and to the complete shock of Alfred, who was already adapting to the idea that the guy he was talking to could be just a cat-obsessed and completely antisocial person, saw a golden mist cover him up and a cat appear in his place.

"What the fuck..." he whispered to himself.

And then, the cat sat down, looked into his eyes and said,

"I need you to stay calm now.”

“WHAT THE FUCK.”

 

* * *

 

It took about ten minutes for Alfred to calm down enough for  a “civilized conversation" as the cat in front of him had asked many times. He was persuaded to accompany the cat to an extravagant dining room and sit with him at a table way too long for two people so they could have a private conversation. The other cats, under orders of the main cat, did not accompany them.

When they got in the room, the cat asked him to open the curtains and the windows so that the light would come in, and Alfred, who had practically turned off his brain to deal with the fact that he was talking to a cat, followed almost mechanically to his request.

The room really seemed a lot better that way. The pure air of the sky after the rain was very pleasant and with the sunlight coming in there, that place seemed much less frightening and desolate. When Alfred got back to sit at the table, the cat was already sitting on one end of it, and Alfred decided to sit on the other end; one, because it was proper and two, because he wanted some distance from that freaking weird cat.

"You must have many questions to ask. I will answer all that I can,” the cat said solemnly.

Alfred's first question was...

“What is your name?”

It was strange to keep referring mentally to the cat as simply _the cat_ when there were hundreds of cats in that place.

"Oh, I..." the cat seemed pleasantly surprised for some reason "I wasn’t expecting that question. My... My name is Arthur.”

Arthur was a weird name for a cat, though it did fit with his human form.

"Are you a cat that turns into a human or a human who turns into a cat?" Alfred wanted to establish that first.

“Yes.”

Oh gosh.

Alfred let out a frustrated grunt covering his face with his hands. That would be a looong conversation.

“Which one?” He insisted.

“It doesn’t matter.” the cat shook its head. “As you saw, I have a human form at night and a feline form during the day. This is my current nature. My servants, the other cats you saw, have only one feline form all day long. That's why we weren’t able to take care of this place as well as it deserved.” the cat explained, looking sheepish. “It is truly immense and I only have the night time to work on it. You must understand and forgive the mess.”

Eh.

"What exactly is this?" Alfred took the opportunity to ask. The only clue he had was that that place belonged to Hearts before. How it came to be inhabited by a bunch of magic cats?

“My home.” the cat replied.

Alfred didn’t give up.

"What was it before it was your home?"

“My parents' home.”

"Were your parents cats or humans?"

“Indeed, they were.”

THAT. GODDAMN. CAT. URGH.

A talking dog would NEVER be like this!!!!

Since it was impossible to get direct answers about the origins of that place and of that strange “cat who turns human” situation, Alfred tried to focus on the present a little.

"How many cats live here?" He asked sulking just a bit, cupping his cheek in one hand.

"Ah, three hundred, I would say. Most of them are my servants and all are my subjects. There used to be a lot more of them but most of them left.”

Even cats fell into the harsh realities of a statutory society.

"Does anyone know about this place?"

"Occasionally, some visitors came here, but they were a bit scary, so we simply avoided them and didn’t let them know about us.”

Apparently, the cats had a little society there and they just wanted some peace. They were a bit mysterious, sure, but evil? Nah.

"Uh... Sorry if this question is a little rude, but why did you come and talk to me?" Alfred questioned, pointing to his own chest.

The cats actively made an effort to get him introduced to Arthur and this didn’t match their behavior with previous visitors, according to what Arthur was saying.

"Did you have any plans for me or...?" Alfred wanted to check.

"You looked tired and were almost freezing in the rain. My servants saw that you were about my age and had sympathy for you.” Arthur’s eyes went a bit to the side when he said it, as if he were hiding something. “If you stay until the night, I can offer you dinner and a room where you can bathe and rest a little.”

"And what would you want in return for that generosity?" Alfred asked a little suspiciously.

“Your ** _soul_**.” the cat answered, making Alfred cover his mouth with a scandalized squeak, before it looked up, as if it would have rolled its eyes if it was physically possible, and said with a disapproving look. "We just want to be good hosts, you coward. If this seems too suspicious to you, you can pay us back by helping me with the housework.”

Ah yes. That made sense.

Should Alfred accept that offer? It was true that he was starving and needing a break for days... On the other hand, the time he lost there would be a time he could have spent by going after more dresses... Hm...

"What's going to be our dinner?" Alfred asked carefully.

“Rabbit soup.”

"I can stay here a little longer."

 

* * *

 

Arthur led Alfred through the castle, giving instructions on a series of household chores to be performed. Wash the windows, polish the cutlery, sweep the floor... He had to work hard.

As a prince who never went out of the castle before his quest, he didn’t usually have to work so hard and thank goodness for that because just that one day of work was being enough to leave him completely exhausted.

On the plus side, he could see a significant impact on his actions. It was clear that the castle was in need of a cleaning. There were areas there that Arthur himself had not put a foot on for years. Not that Alfred could blame him for that. Even if he was a human the whole time, that would already be a job for dozens of people, considering that the castle was huge. Coupled with the fact that Arthur spent most of his time as a cat, it wasn’t difficult to understand how that place had been ruined.

 Now what Alfred wondered as he entered  every room was what that place had been before. According to Arthur, that castle had previously belonged to his parents. That was clearly a lie though, considering the Hearts symbol on the door. So had Arthur’s parents acquired the castle after the fall of the Hearts dynasty? If so, how? Did they just found the empty castle and took it? Arthur surely would remember that. It only had been three, four years since the entire kingdom of Hearts disappeared. Alfred couldn’t remember meeting the royal family of Hearts since he always was kind of a introverted and tried his hardest to avoid them in all their visits but he could remember very well that symbol on Arthur’s gate and what it meant. Maybe Arthur’s parents just didn’t have a sense of what that place once was since they were cats?

“Thank you so much for all your help. If you want some apples, feel free to pick them in the trees that are here in the garden,” the cat said, protecting himself from the sun in the shade of the apple tree in question, when Alfred was pulling some of the weeds around the entrance.

There was a surprisingly confident tone in the way the cat instructed a human to clean his house. Alfred couldn’t say whether this was due to the fact that he was probably a kind of nobleman among cats or whether all cats were simply endowed with a slight natural layer of arrogance.

If Arthur knew who he was ordering, would that make a difference? As Alfred began to ponder this, he was interrupted by his stomach growling.

"Yeah, I'm going to want some apples. Thanks.” he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead, standing up and walking to the tree. "By the way, how do you guys get food around here? Do you eat rats or something?”

The cat shook his face furiously to the sides.

“How disgusting! Of course not! Do you think we're a bunch of animals?!”

"Er... yes?"

Perceiving its lapse, the cat made a sound like a throat clearing and corrected its posture, returning to present itself in a solemn and confident way:

"No, we don’t eat rats. My subjects feed on whatever they can find in the forest. Sometimes rabbits that they hunt, sometimes the food of stupid travelers who stop nearby. In my case, I know how to use the bow and so I do my own hunting for food. Once I even got a boar!” he said quite proudly.

The cat seemed quite prone to talk about his life, as long as it did not involve its origins. Realizing this, Alfred decided to use his time picking apples and devouring them with the hunger that only a man lost for seven days knows, to throw some questions at him.

He learned that the cat liked to read and sew, that his favorite drink was tea, that his favorite season was winter and that he had the great wish to "one day see his gardens beautiful again."

Honestly, that was all very intriguing. Alfred felt that he could talk for hours and hours with that cat without being bored, because it was legitimately interesting to learn the tastes of a magical creature. The late sleep of last night began to hit him, though, and after a certain time he had to retire to sleep.

Arthur offered him one of the few completely clean rooms in the house, one that he took care of every two, three days and indeed that space was much more like what was Alfred used to than any other portion of that palace.

He slept in a big, soft bed, taking his best night of rest in a long time until he woke up in the middle of the night, with a knocking at his door.

At first he was frightened. His first, instinctive reaction was covering himself in blankets, wondering "Who could be knocking on the door in a place like this?", but the door was slowly opened by the human figure of Arthur who had a worried look on his face.

“I’m sorry. Excuse me for waking you up, but... I made your rabbit soup. Apples are not a food enough for someone of your size. You should get down and eat your dinner.”

Alfred blinked momentarily, feeling himself freeze for a moment.

“What's the matter?” Arthur asked suspiciously, folding his arms. He looked slightly shy, judging by the slightly red color on his cheeks.

How to explain? Alfred was feeling sort of... surprised to see Arthur's human form. He'd seen it before, but he'd been too distracted by the idea that Arthur was a ghost to properly check him out. Now it was different. He'd spent the day talking to that person and it was strange to look at them and know that that cat, with whom Alfred spoke so casually during the day because, well, he was a cat, actually was a guy a little older than him who could be considered kinda... cute?

"The food will get cold.” Arthur grunted, furrowing his brows. Right, right. Dinner first, analysis of how handsome the host was afterwards.

Alfred was so hungry that even though the rabbit was raw inside and burned on the outside and the soup was too salty, he devoured it voraciously, not even bothering to leave food for others.

When he finally finished, he decided to apologize for his rudeness. He was still a prince, dammit. A hungry prince could still have a little class. His apology, however, faded into his mouth when he saw the expression on Arthur's face.

Man, Arthur looked so damn happy. His smile, his bright eyes and every pore of his body seemed to be emanating joy. He looked like he was about to cry, that’s how happy he was.

“D-Did you really enjoy my food?!” He asked, with a smile that seemed to brighten the night better than all the candles he had lit on the table.

To be honest, Alfred had barely tasted the food but he felt unable to deny Arthur of any satisfaction at that moment so he just nodded.

"You know..." Arthur said, looking at Alfred with a soft smile and dreamy eyes. "If you stay here one more day, I can make another soup like that for you. I really appreciated your help today and I'd like you to stay in my castle for a bit longer.”

The most reasonable answer to that should be a no. Alfred had appointments. He had to leave the next morning, ride his horse and go to Diamonds to get the ideal dress to win his father’s trial. This was no time to play around with a bunch of cats.

Alfred couldn’t say to no to him, though. He could stay a couple of days, right? Remembering how the castle was before his arrival was a little sad. Thinking about Arthur cleaning that place all by himself and spending all his days, without any human contact, seemed a bit depressing. He looked like a good person, even though he was, most of the time, a cat. Alfred wanted to help him even if just a bit more.

"Yes, it may be. I think I can spend another couple of days until we can get rid of those weeds in your garden.”

Arthur got up at that and walk right in front of Alfred, giving him no second to think about what was happening, before giving him a tight hug. Oh, that had been... unexpected.

“Thank you very much.” he said in a deeply grateful voice "I hope to compensate you for this one day.”

Flushed and feeling his tongue lost in his own mouth, Alfred just stuttered "uh, okay." This made Arthur laugh and sit closer to him.

"Now tell me more things about you! I have not heard much from you yet, traveler. What are you? A merchant? Maybe a tailor?

"Although the dresses suggest it, I'm not one of those things. Not by far.”

"Oh, so what are you? A spy, a wizard, maybe a prince?” Arthur asked, very intrigued.

Alfred could lose competitions and get lost in forests but you know what he didn’t lose? The opportunity to be petty.

"Yes," he replied with a huge smirk.

“Which one?” Arthur probed.  

“I can only tell you as much.” He shrugged with a mocking air. "That sounds like a good enough answer, doesn’t it?"

Seeing Arthur grunt and say a bad word under his breath because he couldn’t retort was truly one of the funniest things Alfred had seen in a while.

 

* * *

 

What should have been two more days ended up turning into a week. A week turned into two weeks. Two weeks had turned into a month, and from then on, Alfred had lost control of the situation, so that on one fine morning he woke up and realization struck him hard, making him slap loudly his forehead:

 THE TEST IS IN A WEEK!

 He couldn’t believe that he had spent all those days fixing a castle that wasn’t even his and talking to Arthur and had completely missed the time he had to go to the other kingdom to get his dress!

 He needed to leave IMMEDIATELY if he wanted to be back in time for the test. There was no time to get a new dress.

 He put on his clothes as fast as he could and ran down the stairs, shouting for Arthur. He came in his feline form, staring at Alfred with hatred. Alfred knew why he was grumpy. His bedtime was in the morning, Alfred had learned.

 "Sorry for waking you up, Artie!” Alfred smiled apologetically. “I just wanted to say goodbye before I left!”

 “Wait a minute. Leave?” Arthur got startled by his sentence and ran toward him, gaping. "What are you talking about? Why do you need to go immediately? Wha... What did I do?”

 It was kinda cute that Arthur’s first thought about Alfred's departure was that that was due to something he'd done.

 “Look, I'll try to explain it fast, since I really don’t have time. First of all, I’m actually... a prince! I know this must be difficult to process and that you should feel ashamed by how casually you treated me and that’s why I did not want to tell you before and...!”

 “I know. Prince Alfred Frederick Jones of Spades, right?” the cat pointed out calmly. “I didn’t recognize you right away, but after you gained a little more weight and gained your cheeks back, I identified you. I’ve seen some of your portraits.”

 ...Oh. Did that mean that... Alfred was so famous that even the leader of a bunch of magical cats knew about him???? That was awesome! If only his father was there to listen to it!

 “Er... Anyway...! My father made a test to choose his heir and I had a year to find the most impressive dress in the world for him, whatever that means, and to be honest, I only have a bunch of lame dresses, but I have no other choice, so I think I'll try to show the most expensive one to him and...!”

 Arthur, in response, put a paw on one of Alfred's ankles in a comforting, if somewhat awkward, gesture.

 “Calm down, Alfred. I can help you.”

Help, huh?

"Artie, I won’t deny it. You sew very well. You cook terribly but you sew well.” he admitted and that was no news for Arthur.

Alfred lied about Arthur’s cooking abilities the first few nights, however after getting closer to him, he confessed to Arthur that his food had some flaws. Several, actually. He still wanted Arthur’s food so they both were okay with that.

... Arthur still scratched his pants as revenge for this honest feedback, though.

"Thing is, sewing well isn’t enough. I bought dresses from famous tailors and even they still don’t look good enough to me.” Alfred added, trying to explain why this was no simple matter.

Arthur, not letting himself be shaken by this refusal, replied:

"I have a seamstress who is truly something else, Alfred. If you allow her to make your dress, you will win this test. I'm sure.”

Arthur seemed confident about it. Maybe Alfred shouldn’t refuse help from magical creatures. That was always a good thing in the old folk tales.

"Uh... Just to be sure, she's not going to make an enchantment that'll make me win anyway, right?" Alfred questioned hesitantly with a frown “I don’t wanna win like that...”

"No, she's just going to give you a really good dress." the cat commented in a satisfied tone. He looked happy about the fact that Alfred cared to check if he wouldn’t be cheating. "Just wait an hour. Meanwhile, you can eat some apples and prepare your horse.”

A little skeptical, but willing to try, Alfred shrugged in response.

"If I lose with the dress you gonna give me, I want you to make an apple pie for me as compensation." he proposed.

"I thought you didn’t like my food." Arthur gave him a side glance.

"Yeah, I don’t like your food. Still, gotta love your desserts." Alfred said in a soft voice and a truly affectionate tone. “They are one of my favorite things in the whole world.”

Arthur, who was weak against compliments, turned his back to him, timid.

"Y-Your contradictory fool.” he mumbled discreetly, before walking away, he added,"I'll get your dress. I hope you can behave yourself for an hour.”

“See you soon, Artie! Think of me while you’re gone!” Alfred nodded at him with a big smile. Oh, he loved to tease Artie, but no more than how much he adored Arthur himself.

After exactly one hour of waiting, Arthur returned, accompanied by a gray cat, much larger than him, carrying an envelope in his mouth. He deposited the envelope at Alfred's feet and Arthur announced, "This is your dress, you can take it to your father."

The envelope was made of paper, and although it was quite long, it did not seem to have enough volume to have a dress inside it. That made Alfred wonder if this wasn’t just a prank by Arthur as revenge for Alfred’s admission that his food was awful.

“Uh... so there’s a dress here? A human sized dress?” Alfred checked, holding the envelope and placing it against his chest. It was really light. It only seemed to have only air inside.

"Yes, and don’t crumple it. Try to carry it with care.” Arthur scolded him. "That's a good dress, Alfred. My seamstress did her best. She had not done this kind of work in a long time, but that's her specialty.” he explained rather seriously. “Show it with pride.”

Alfred, understanding that there was a serious effort in that present, nodded with a determined look. He was going to present that dress with pride, whatever came out of that envelope. He trusted Arthur. Really. He put the envelope on his belt, climbing onto his horse.

Arthur then, to his surprise, cast a slightly sad glance in his direction.

"I'd like to ask you to wait until nightfall so I could hug you. It’s a shame that isn’t possible..."

Alfred's heart had no defense against something like that.

"You can’t hug me but, you see, I can hold you!" He exclaimed immediately, getting off the horse and holding Arthur in his arms with his head against his shoulder. “ Haha! This is the first time I hug a cat! You're so fuzzy!”

"I'm not exactly a cat..." Arthur muttered embarrassed against his shoulder. "Also, you have terrible taste. Cats are perfectly lovely animals.”

"I feel this is a little biased coming from you.” Alfred pointed out, laughing briefly.

That was their farewell. Alfred tried to put it off a little, playing with Arthur in his arms but it didn’t take long. They both knew he had to go. He left his other dresses in the castle as a thank for all that Arthur and the other cats had done, and took with him only the envelope entrusted to him, dashing off on his horse, finally going back home.

 

* * *

 

 

 Back at the palace, Alfred found his two twin brothers at the gates of the castle, equally grumpy with his delay, even though he was only an hour late. Fortunately, they didn’t have time to complain about Alfred’s tardiness. Shortly after his arrival being announced, the king and queen came to greet them with hugs and questions and invited them to dinner to commemorate their return.

Everything seemed very domestic and quiet until the king asked at the time of dessert:

"What did you bring as a present to your mother, boys? Show us.”

The first to get up was Matt, of course. He was such a yes-man. He showed the king a dress that had an elaborate embroidery showing crucial moments in the history of the Kingdom of Spades, made with the finest details, carefully placed on the fabric.

Alfred tried to get up to show his dress next, but Alan put his hand on his shoulder, pushing him down and using the movement to get himself up. He presented, very convinced of the victory, a dress adorned with jewels from top to bottom, full of pearls, sapphires and diamonds. He explained, in a very dramatic and almost theatrical manner, that he had used all his money to order this dress and that he had to work in a dirty tavern to make ends meet for the rest of the year. Awww, poor Alan. It must have been sooooo hard to have to work in a place he already went to all the time!

After seeing these two stunning dresses, the king and the queen turned to Alfred and he knew by looking at them that they were really not expecting much from him.  They had a look of pity in their eyes that indicated that they were mentally preparing to pretend to be impressed by his dress, whatever he showed to them.

Since even Alfred didn’t know if he could be proud of the dress he had brought, he thought that was fair enough.

Despite his fears, not wanting to give up until the last minute, he opened the paper envelope Arthur had entrusted to him and put his hand inside it, closing his eyes and thinking "Please, please, a reasonably good dress."

When he touched the inside of the envelope, he felt something he wasn’t expecting. The material on which his hand touched was thin. In fact, so thin that he had to examine for a moment if there really was something in there. The consistency of it was strange as well. Its yarns were strong yet elastic and at the same time very, very light.

“Alfred, the dress." his mother pressed him, since Alfred was taking a really long time just to take his dress out of the envelope.

Okay, it was now or never.

He grabbed the sleeves of the dress and let the package fall to reveal it, and to his and his entire family’s astonishment, he saw a dress that looked nothing like anything Alfred had seen before. It was a white dress, with semi-opaque threads that shone in certain angles. The most curious trace about it was how thin it was. It appeared to have no more than the thickness of a nail. It seemed almost impossible that such a dress could exist.

The queen, a huge fan of nice clothes, noticed that, of course, and asked to take a closer look at the dress Alfred had brought. She said she had never seen that material before and after a couple of minutes analyzing it, she finally concluded in shock:

"Alfred, my dear! Did you bring me a dress made of cobwebs?!”

He had????

OH SHIT.

Alfred was about to apologize and tell the truth, that he had taken this dress from a castle full of cats and that he must have imagined something like this would happen when...

"That was definitely the most impressive dress I've ever seen.” the queen laughed. "You really managed to surprise me, Alfred!"

The face of Alfred's father and his brothers at that moment was completely priceless and probably the most impressive thing that ALFRED had ever seen.

Wow. He... He had apparently won! He would become the new king!

Before Alfred could celebrate, the king placed a hand on his shoulder with a sober expression.

"Very well, Alfred.” the king began to clear his throat. "You were able to pass the first test.”

Wait a second. First? He had said that this would be the proof that would define who would inherit the kingdom. Not that it was just a step to it!

"I forgot to warn you, but I'll pass a second test, more important than the first.” the king added nervously. "This first test was meant to prepare you for the second. This second is the one that will define who will inherit my kingdom! I must have mixed something up when I explained the conditions of the test for you.”

The second test, he announced, would be to bring to the castle the most impressive dog they could find. This dog would be the new mascot of the royal family, so they had to make a very careful choice.

The truth is that the king had no idea where the hell Alfred had gotten that strange dress, but he knew it must have been by sheer luck on his part, rather than strategy like his brothers. He didn’t believe that Alfred was ready to be the king and if he had to rebuke himself in front of his children to avoid the fall of the throne of Spades, so be it.

Matt and Alan didn’t want to miss the opportunity to have one more chance to get the throne and eagerly agreed with their father that they understood that too. Bunch of ass-kissers, Alfred thought in annoyance. He was sure that his father had said that the winner of that event would be the king. What fault did he have if his father seemed to have thought of a cooler trial? That was so unfair.

Meh...

As a comfort, at least he liked dogs.

 

* * *

 

Once more, the brothers received equal amounts of money and were sent to find their way and their ideal dog around the world in a year. Matt left, saying that he would go to a town that had many dog breeders and asked if Alfred didn’t want to go with him, so that they could share the expenses of the journey, and have more money to spend on their own dogs.

 It was a good offer, but Alfred had to refuse it. Before going anywhere and thinking about the next test, he had a place he needed to go first.

 He rode on his horse and set out for the woods at the frontiers of Spades and Diamonds, where he wandered for days, until he finally found, with a great smile on his face, Arthur’s odd castle.

 Many cats came to greet him at the gate, seeming to celebrate his return with meows. They gave him the key to open the gates, and he walked through it, leading his horse to the stables.

 It was late afternoon and the sky was getting beautiful orange colors, contrasting with the now greener and livelier plants of Arthur's garden.

 Alfred paused his walk to the stables for a moment to admire that scene, when suddenly he heard a familiar voice complain:

 "If you just wanted to admire the sunset, you could have gone somewhere else."

 Alfred would recognize that display of affection disguised as teasing anywhere. He turned to Arthur with a big smile.

 "I have the impression that the sunset here is a lot nicer as it allows me to see your face.”

 And as a matter of fact, as soon as he said that, the sun came down, and silver haze enveloped Arthur's feline body, making him take on his human form. Alfred found the moment very timely because it allowed him to see Arthur's flushed face in reaction to what he had said - something he would never notice if Arthur were in his cat's body.

 “You silly.” he grumbled, looking away. Ahh, his face looked so precious. Alfred wanted to squeeze and kiss those cheeks. "I didn’t think you'd return ..."

 "Oh, shouldn’t I have come, then?" Alfred asked, more as a joke than by anything. He knew that Arthur liked his company.

 "That's not what I'm saying!" Arthur clenched his fists.

 He was staring at Alfred with eyes full of an intense mixture of feelings. If Alfred had to point out what those feelings were, it looked like a longing that Arthur seemed desperate to convey properly, despite having, at the same time, fears about revealing too much of himself.

 "A-As a host...” Arthur said, lowering his eyes, looking a bit self-conscious “ I'm glad you liked my castle so much that you came back here."

 “Aww, Artie. Just as a host? What about that hug you wanted to give me before I left?” Alfred asked with a smile from ear to ear.

 "You're teasing me." Arthur said in a deadpan tone, as if he just have figured it out.

 “Why, I certainly am.” Alfred smirked.

 "You can be unbearable sometimes. The worst thing is that you know it and are proud of it.” Arthur snorted, turning his back on him. “Let’s get inside! I wasn’t expecting your visit and I have to prepare dinner immediately!”

 Alfred followed cheerfully, putting his hands in his pockets and whistling a happy tune. It felt good to be back.

 

* * *

 

 

Dinner was burnt and salt-less, but Alfred ate it without complaining. He was too happy to be with Arthur again to point out his culinary flaws. After all, he knew his taste buds were probably already doomed after so many dinners prepared by Arthur and he was willing to make that sacrifice to see a smile on Artie's face. He had missed that smile so much.

The distance really seemed to make the heart grow fonder because Arthur was looking abnormally beautiful that night and Alfred felt he could even repeat that awful food just to see him happy.

"So... What did you actually come here to do?" Arthur asked at a certain point of dinner.

Alfred hadn’t touched on the subject yet, preferring to check how Arthur had spent those days instead of talking about himself.

"Oh, I came here to thank you for the dress you gave me. My mother loved it. She was very impressed.” Alfred said, putting his cutlery aside to look Arthur in the eyes for a moment. “I even won the test!”

"Oh..." Arthur looked a little sad to hear that. Living with a cat face for so long made him bad at disguising his own feelings when he was in human form. "Does that mean you're a king now? The King of Spades?”

“Hey! Don’t say that with that devastated expression! I would be a good king!” Alfred remarked, offended.

"Is my expression showing that...? Oh sorry. That was entirely accidental, I can assure you.” he said, tugging lightly on his cheeks as if he were trying to manually fix the look on his face. "Well, it is true that I would lament a bit if you became king. As a king, you would hardly have time to take care of the plants of an old cat.”

"Eh, maybe it's true, but we won’t find out about that so soon.” Alfred shrugged. "My father passed another test. I'm not king yet.”

“What?” Arthur looked surprised and, to Alfred’s joy, slightly angry at this. Finally someone supported him! “This is absurd. He had clearly said that the previous test would be the one he would use to choose his heir.”

“Yes, he did! Can you believe that?! He kept saying I understood something wrong but I'm pretty sure he said it!” Alfred exclaimed, relieved to finally get that out of his chest.

The two of them talked for the rest of the night, sharing their indignation with nobles breaking promises and mocking their ridiculous contradictions. It was almost morning when Arthur decided to leave the table to arrange some things before he turned into a cat again. Alfred had to request shelter for that night, as it was too late for him to go on with his  trip.

“Oh yeah. Of course. You can even spend a few days here if you want.”

Alfred seriously considered that offer. That seemed pretty good. After all, losing a week when he had a year to travel around wasn’t such a bad thing, right?

 

* * *

 

Losing a week wouldn’t be that bad, but again, Alfred found himself spending more and more time in that castle than he had planned.

It was as if a spell kept him there and, well, that would be a less embarrassing explanation if that were the case. However, the more Alfred analyzed why he did not want to leave that place, the clearer Arthur's face came as an answer.

Alfred couldn’t deny that Arthur had become one of his favorite people in the world.

Spending months living together made them very close and they became pretty good friends. Friendship with Arthur was a exciting experience. With every new detail that Alfred learned about Arthur, the more fascinated he became about him. He liked Arthur the hunter, bringing a boar on his shoulders; and Arthur the artist, playing a sweet tune in a harp. He liked the Arthur who was too serious at times and the Arthur who laughed at the dumbest jokes at other times.

Alfred liked Artie so much that over time it became something enjoyable for him to share even the smallest moments with Arthur, like helping him with his garden or eating his horrible dinner every night.

The only detail that made their coexistence a bit uncomfortable was the fact that when Arthur was in his human form, Alfred had to make a conscious effort not stare him, since Arthur was ridiculously attractive.

From his shoulders to his thighs, every curve in his body made the temperature of Alfred’s skin rise and his face, oh god, Alfred was so weak against those eyes and that mouth.

Alfred was sure that marriage proposals would be raining on Arthur’s door if he was a normal human, living among other people.

There were still sides in Arthur that were quite mysterious, yes, but did that matter? Did his past matter that much? Alfred might not know Arthur’s origins and the world in which he lived, but he liked the person he saw in the present. He really liked him. Which was a new, exciting and scary feeling because Alfred never had his heart choosing someone so clearly and specifically before.

Maybe after the end of his test, he could talk to Arthur about those feelings. Alfred would probably lose the competition, since so much time had passed and he had not even tried to go after a dog. He knew it and it wasn’t such a bad thing to imagine it anymore. If he weren’t a king, there would be less pressure on his choice of queen, and his parents would probably resign themselves to his choice of a mysterious man who was a cat for most of the day.

He was at peace about it... At least, until Arthur, acting as if he was a shadow personification of Alfred’s guilty, came to bother him about it when there was one week left for him to come home.

"So how much time do you have to get your father's gift for the second test?" he asked during dinner. "You seem oddly calm about it. Do you have any secret trumps I’m not aware of?"

"I'm just gonna buy some random dog nearby so I won’t show up empty handed." Alfred answered nonchalantly, eating his food without a care in the world. "I know I won’t win anyway.”

“What?!” Arthur gasped, looking horrified. "Do you intend to make a fool of yourself?!"

“Hey, it's not like that!” Alfred complained, almost choking on a piece of meat that he swallowed too quickly. Dang, Arthur hit just where it hurts, huh? "You don’t have to put it this way!"

Arthur rested his head in his hands, deep in thought. Alfred could practically hear engines creaking on his brain. He looked like a mother who had just received the news that her son had been expelled from school. Then, suddenly, his eyes flashed as if he just had a revelation.

“Wait. Are you doing this because you didn’t have time to go after a proper dog because of me?"

Ehhh, kinda? Alfred had a huge crush on that guy, so he thought it was a better idea to spend more time with him than to invest in his father's stupid and unjust trial for the throne. This was not exactly Arthur's fault, though he was at the center of that decision.

“Actually..." Alfred began to scratch his cheek with an awkward smile.

“Then, it was it.” Arthur concluded, mortified, with eyes huge like plates. “I’m the responsible for it. I ruined your future.”

Urgh. What a drama queen. It was nothing like that.

"Arthur, it's no big deal.” Alfred tried to calm him down but Arthur wasn’t listening.

"I need to fix this," he said, standing up, walking up to Alfred's chair and then grasping his hands tightly, a action that made Alfred's heart almost jump out of his chest. "Please, allow me to give you one of my own dogs so you can take it to your father!"

Feeling his hands held so tightly by Arthur, Alfred couldn’t think straight about the consequences of the deal Arthur was offering, much less whether he should accept it or not.

There were several questions that he should have asked at that time. "Do you even have a dog?" "Do you know I won’t be able to give your dog back later?" "For goodness sakes, can you tell what do you feel for me already?"

Instead of making any of them, all Alfred was able to do was to look away, a little flushed, and mumble hesitantly:

“This isn’t necessary…”

“I _insist_!” Arthur rebuked, staring hard at his eyes. Man, he sure looked determined about that.

Well, Alfred was just going to buy a random dog on his way back, so it didn’t make much difference to receive one of Arthur’s dogs instead. He accepted Arthur's offer, not thinking too much about it, just to comfort him, and also because he wasn’t sure his heart would last longer if it kept jumping like that.

Having learned from the last time he left Arthur’s castle, when Alfred went away this time, he did it during the night to get a chance to give Arthur a good-bye hug before leaving.

They exchanged a slightly awkward hug in front of the castle’s gates and, after they pulled away from each other, Alfred took Arthur's hands, promising he would be back shortly. Arthur then took advantage of their proximity to leave a small box with some tiny holes in the palm of Alfred’s hand.

“What is this?” Alfred asked amused with that strange trinket.

“What do you mean? Obviously, it's the present for you to take to your father.” Arthur replied, putting his hands on his hips and tilting his head to the side.

The box, as was mentioned, fit in one hand, which was why Alfred couldn’t help but be confused by that response. Had Arthur understood that the king was expecting a real dog? There was no way there was a real dog in there. Probably Arthur thought a miniature of a dog would suffice. That’s why he offered one to Alfred even though Alfred never heard a single bark in his castle.

“Oh, awesome!” he smiled automatically, trying to omit his pressing thought of ‘oh my god, my father will think I'm so dumb’.

"Please don’t open the box on your way to the castle." Arthur recommended worriedly. "My dog is so small you could easily lose it."

“No problem!” Alfred winked at Artie, giving him a thumbs-up. Screw what his father would think. He would be bringing something that was a gift from Arthur and he would be proud of whatever came out of that package. “Keep things in order here, okay?”

"Yes..." Arthur gave a small smile in his direction that made Alfred's heart flutter. "Be careful on the way, you fool. I care about you.”

For a brief moment, Alfred considered taking his chances and risking giving Arthur a kiss, however, he ended up deciding that wasn’t the right moment. He had to wait for a better opportunity to talk to Arthur  and explain what he felt.

That time would come eventually. For now, though, he had to leave.

 

* * *

 

 By the time Alfred arrived at the castle, only Matthew had arrived and he had a medium-sized dog with gold hairs with a common but friendly appearance.

 That meant that Alfred had arrived before Alan this time! Hell yeah!

 "Alfred, where is your dog?" Matt asked worriedly.

 Alfred was opening his mouth to answer his question with a "where's my good morning?" When both were interrupted by Alan's triumphant arrival with his dog running beside his horse. Alan's dog was black and huge. It looked almost like a wolf. Honestly, it was such a daunting sight to see such a big being running so fast.

 As Alan set foot in the doorway, the servants rushed to warn the king that his three sons were waiting for him and, to his surprise, instead of being invited in, they were told to stay in place and wait for the king outside.

 The king arrived soon after, rubbing his hands with a huge smile on his lips. "So?" He asked enthusiastically, "Where are my dogs?"

 Matthew showed that his dog knew a number of tricks. It could do so many things. Not only simple tricks like rolling, sitting and pretending to be dead, but also really impressive stuff like doing math calculations, dancing and making his own bed.

 Alan showed that his dog was a true force of nature. It was on his turn that Alfred understood why the king had come outside instead of inviting them inside for testing out the dogs. An open space in the open was ideal for Alan to show how high his dog could jump, how fast he could run. Strong, fast and gigantic. It didn’t need to know tricks. Its natural actions were impressive by themselves and its own presence was already imposing enough to count credits for it.

 After all that, it was Alfred's turn.

 He sighed deeply. He was totally ready for the worst. He had put no effort into it. This time he deserved to lose. It was just a little annoying to know that he would lose when he saw the mocking smile on Alan's face and the blank expression on his father’s face showing that they were already anticipating the worst coming from him. It sucked to know that he would only confirm their thoughts.

 When asked "where's your dog?" Alfred closed his eyes and opened the box he brought without saying a word. Being that to his surprise, there was a box inside that box.

 Gosh, Arthur was really worried about the impact the trip might have on his gift. He was so organized. That was just like him, Alfred thought with an affectionate smile.

 Recovering his breath, Alfred opened the second box. There was a third box in it. Okay, instead of a security measure, that was starting to look an awful lot like a prank.

 "Is that a joke, Alfred?" Alan laughed very loudly.

 Embarrassed, Alfred hurriedly opened the third box, and this time he revealed a ball of cloth inside of it.

 "I swear by everything I have in this world, if there’s another box inside this damn ball, I'll...!"

 He was thinking about it when he heard a low, high-pitched sound come out from inside the ball. It was very discreet but he definitely had heard a noise coming from there.

 Having no idea what to expect at that point, Alfred, a bit more hesitant, opened the ball of cloth and what he saw was... a dog.

 Not a miniature. A real dog. Extremely lovely and fluffy and about the size of a little finger.

 The king shouted "What?! What the hell...?!" seeing that dog and, seriously, big mood. Alfred felt the same way. He couldn’t express it openly, though, because it would be kind of weird if he'd almost fallen on his ass at the sight of  the dog “he” had chosen.

 Alfred's brothers approached, curious, and couldn’t resist the urge to touch the dog and compare it to the size of their hands.

Things were going way better than he'd expected. He still had a chance to win! The test was to bring the most impressive dog and everyone so far had been far more surprised with his dog than with any of the others! The king seemed to be considering this. He looked thoughtfully at the little dog in Alfred's hands. However, his final answer was...

“A... Alan won the test.”

“What?! Is that serious?!”

Surprisingly, the person who questioned this wasn’t Alfred. It was Alan himself.

The three brothers were all shocked by their father’s decision. Rivalries aside, they still had a sense of justice and it was so obvious that Alfred's dog had been the most impressive of the day! It didn’t even look like a real dog!

Welp, never mind. Screw that! Back to the plan to lose the competition and ask Arthur in marriage. Finally those goddamn trials would end.

“Yes, Alan!” the king laughed a little too loudly, with an uncomfortable smile. "Congratulations! I'll give the crown to...!”

"Wait a minute, father." Matt interjected, sounding as controversial as those people who say something when the priest asks if there is anyone who has anything against the ceremony at a wedding.

Alfred wanted to grab his shoulders and shout ‘ _Why?! Why are you doing this?! Do you really want to spend your whole life searching for nice things for our father?!_ ’ The only reason why Alfred didn’t do it was because he had a very small dog in his hands and he needed to be careful with it.

“Alfred won the first test and Alan the second one. I don’t think it would be fair to declare that Alan is the winner when they are technically tied.” Matthew argued.

Alfred had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. For fuck’s sakes Matt!

What the heck was he doing? Did he want that competition to last ten years??? He had no other hobbies to devote to or loved ones who he wanted spend time with???

"Matthew, as I said, this second test was the one that counted, so..." the king tried to explain, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sorry, my dear father, but that wasn’t what my brothers and I or my mother had understood. For all of us, the first test counted as much as this one and since the results of both tests were different, we should have a tiebreaker”. Mr. Justice-Pants over there insisted.

Urghh, thank goodness that at least Alan would never agree to such a thing and they wouldn’t have to do a freaking test aga...

"I agree with Matthew.” Alan said, making Alfred cover his face with his hands and shake his head in exasperation. What a bunch of assholes! "I really want to earn my position as king. I don’t want any doubts left that I deserved the crown. Give us a third test!”

The king sighed and pondered about his options. He seemed as tired of those tests as Alfred. However, he knew that with two of his sons, including the winner himself, contesting his decision, he couldn’t be hasty about it.

“I will attend to your request, then.” he cleared his throat and looked solemnly at his three heirs. "I have a third and final task for you. This time, I will send you to go after an object of desire for _you_.”

Eh, what would it be this time? Finding the most awesome pillow in the world? The most amazing food in the world? When Alfred thought of objects of desire, these were the only ideas that came to his mind. Well, this and...

“I want you to bring a proper queen to the throne of Spades. The gender doesn’t matter but they have to be a very impressive fiancé.”

Crap.

“In two weeks.” the king added.

CRAP.

 

* * *

 

Receiving money just for travel expenses, the three brothers set off to find their future partners. They had a much shorter time this time and there was no time to be wasted, so Alan and Matthew left the castle in a hurry. Heh, it was kind of funny that they had more time to select a dog and a dress than to choose the person they would share the rest of their lives with.

Alfred, meanwhile, was galloping slowly, patiently through the forest. He knew where he was going and he knew this was the only place he wanted to go.

On his way, he came to think about everything that had happened in recent years. He thought of the expectations he had of becoming king when the competition began, in the difficulties he had in his first test and the doubts he had about himself...  He also thought about his first encounter with Arthur and the first day they worked together to fix his home. He thought of the various conversations they had had, the dinners they had shared, the time they spent working on Arthur's home and the connection they had established in those two years.

Remembering Arthur carefully, Alfred could see that he was unlike anyone he had ever met. He wasn’t intentionally blind to Alfred's shortcomings, like some of his admirers, nor was he intentionally blind to his qualities, like the members of his family. Arthur could tease him a lot and sometimes be grumpy with him but, no matter what, he was always willing to listen to Alfred's complaints and dreams. He respected him as an equal, no more, no less. His sincere advices and all the help he had given in the king's trials were some of the most thoughtful gifts Alfred had ever received in his life.

Arthur was truly great.

Alfred couldn’t lie to himself and say that he only saw Arthur as a friend. Oh no. He knew he wanted Arthur as well. He wanted to kiss him, hold his hand and embrace him. He truly longed for the day in which he would be able to physically express his love for Arthur.

He wanted that so badly, he couldn’t bear to keep bottling up those feelings, not even for two weeks. He also couldn’t take the idea of presenting another potential queen to his father, when he knew who was the one he wanted to be his partner until the end of days.

At some point on those last years, Alfred simply forgot his original goal of becoming a king and now that he was looking back... he couldn’t even remember why he wanted it in the first place. It was probably because before he met Arthur, he had never received any sincere support from anyone.

He knew he was the odd one in his family. This had been obvious to him since he was a child. That’s why he desperately needed them to believe in him, to see potential in him, to smile at him and encourage his ideas. If he had to get the throne for it to happen… so be it.

He had thought that being a king was the only way to prove to others that he too was worthy of respect and understanding but now he understood that wasn’t true.

He didn’t have to prove himself to those people. All this time, he just needed to find a person who would listen and encourage him, without making him have to struggle to get their attention and respect. Arthur was this person for him and, so, he didn’t feel lonely anymore.

There was no luxury in the world that would be able to replace the value of his routine with Arthur. Nothing could substitute the joy of talking to him about books, renovations to make in the castle or simply about the people/cats in both of their courts. Alfred had a friend, he had a person he loved, and he didn’t care that this person was actually a magical forest creature that his parents would never accept as his husband.

Alfred now had a new purpose for his life. He wanted to build a future with Arthur.

 

* * *

 

In his slow, patient pace, it took Alfred a week and a half until he reached Arthur's castle. As soon as he arrived, the first thing he thought of was that the castle didn’t look as old as it had seemed when he first found it. Where once there were only ruins and weeds, there was now a green garden, decorated with multi-colored flowers. It looked like a drop of color and perfume in the middle of the dark forest. It was pretty darn beautiful.

They, they actually did it. They fixed Arthur’s garden!

Inside the castle, there was still much, much more to be done. Maybe more than could be fixed in a lifetime, since it was only him and Arthur doing all the work, but Alfred was willing to do his best shot and see what would happen.

When Alfred was thinking about it, a colorful breeze passed in the wind indicating to him that Arthur was close to assume his human form. Ah, what a perfect timing.

Alfred’s chest was rather full of all the emotions he carried around for a while. He would likely spew it all out as soon as he saw Arthur, in whatever form he was. However, it would be really, really weird to confess his feelings to a cat, so it was a good thing, really, that the sun had set at that exact time. That made the situation way less awkward.

Alfred was thinking about it, putting a hand on his chest, relieved, when he saw Arthur opening the door and running toward him with a big smile. He was in white robes covered in cat fur, with completely messy hair and a still slightly sleepy face. He looked gorgeous.

Arthur's smile diminished as he approached Alfred. At the time Arthur got close enough to touch him, it had completely disappeared.

"You didn’t win the test, did you? You look extremely tense.”

Yep, Alfred was tense, indeed, although not for the reasons Arthur was thinking.

Alfred was tense because he was about to confess his feelings to Arthur and he was afraid that Arthur would just laugh out of his face and say that he had never thought of Alfred like that... Considering the circumstances, Alfred couldn’t even be sure that he liked humans. Oh gosh. What if Arthur liked a cat?! What if Alfred lost the only person he really loved to A CAT?!

"I didn’t win..." Alfred replied in a soft voice, staring at the ground.

What was he doing?  He shouldn’t waste time on that subject or those stupid thoughts. He should be confessing. He should be telling Arthur what he felt... and yet his knees seemed to turn to jelly whenever he thought of opening his mouth to speak. Tsk.

“However, my father passed a third test to us...” he was going to say ‘and I don’t feel it’s necessary for me to keep going on with his charades’ when Arthur interrupted him.

"Oh, that surprises me.” Arthur remarked, scratching his own chin. "Don’t be offended by what I’m going to say, but honestly, I thought your father had a problem with you, specifically. I thought that the second test he passed was just because you won the first one and that if one of your brothers won it, he would accept their victory...”

Dang, Arthur. Alfred might have been injured by that statement hadn’t he got used to Arthur's brutal sincerity at this point.

“Better for you that I was wrong, correct?” Arthur concluded with a shrug. "What's the test now?"

Just imagining seeing Arthur saying 'oh, do not worry, I'll get you the perfect queen to bring to the castle!' was deeply upsetting to Alfred's heart. No chance that he would risk receiving that answer by revealing the challenge before revealing his own feelings.

“T-That doesn’t matter...”

“Of course it matters,” Arthur replied in a critical, impatient tone, arms folded across his chest. "Don’t you want my help this time?"

Alfred said nothing and that said a lot to Arthur.

 It finally dawned on him that Alfred wasn’t trying to win this time. And his reaction about it wasn’t very good.

 "Why are you giving up so easily? When you first got here, you were extremely anxious about the test! You freaked out when you thought you were going to fail it! What has changed now?!” Arthur asked, confronting him.

 "Well, maybe I don’t want to be king anymore!" Alfred snapped.

 “Alfred, come on!” Arthur interjected. Apparently, he was so stubborn that he was unable to understand the idea that other  people could change their mind.  “I’m not stupid! You _want_ to be king! You're only afraid to have expectations in case you lose! You're lying to yourself!”

 It was a bit annoying how Arthur sometimes thought he knew everything. Right at that moment, he was turning Alfred’s actually simple situation into a great drama.

 "Look, I'm afraid of being disappointed but not about it, okay?!" Alfred said at once, carried away by the heat of the discussion. “I have other dreams now! Almost two years have passed, I changed! Don’t use my past-self goals as a weapon against me!”

 "All right, Alfred” Arthur said in a very serious, unsatisfied tone that suggested that nothing was all right at all. Then, he confronted Alfred, poking at his chest and staring him hard in the eye. "If you don’t want to be king anymore, what do you want to be?"

Not trusting his own words to express the mix of emotions he was feeling, Alfred just grabbed Arthur's shoulders and pulled him into a firm, deep kiss.

After their lips parted, he took advantage of Arthur's shocked silence to answer:

“Your husband.”

 …

 There it was. His love confession ended up coming out pretty weird but hopefully it had sent the message.

 He wanted Arthur, he liked Arthur. If Arthur asked him to explain why, Alfred could spend the whole evening explaining how many things he loved about him...

 Unfortunately, Arthur didn’t ask him this. He was in too much shock to do that. He seemed almost frozen for a good moment. And then, suddenly, several things happened on his face. He got very red, his lower lip began to tremble, and as a final blow, thick tears began to slide down his face… Oh, shit. Was that good??? Was that bad???

 "You are not..." he began to rub his eyes. "You're not kidding, are you?"

 Alfred had no idea what the person he loved was feeling at the moment and it scared him.

 “ _Obviously_ not!”

 "I figured..." Arthur sighed. He tried to stop wiping his tears away but was forced to do it again because they kept coming down. "It's very much like you to make a love confession that could be mistaken by a joke..."

 “Hey, wait a…!”

 "Alfred, listen..." Arthur sniffed, wiping his face on the robes collar in a rare lapse of his usually chivalrous and composed manners. “I'm sorry, but if you really love me, I need to make a request to you.”

 Truth was, Alfred wasn’t ready for this request. He thought he was. He wasn’t.

 He imagined that Arthur would ask for proof of his feelings or serious intentions, and he was quite willing to provide that. More than willing! He was excited to be able to provide these things! He wanted so badly to finally show how serious and how deeply in love with Arthur he was! Whether they were flowers, poems or the most expensive jewels in the world, Alfred was willing to do his best to give Arthur what he wanted! So his answer was...

 “Of course! Whatever you want!” he excitedly assured.

 "Alfred, if you really love me..." Arthur replied in a low voice with eyes lowered as well. His countenance must have been a warning to Alfred. Yet, he was too hopeful to notice it. "... I need you to leave now and promise not look for me until I go after you."

 That came like a cold, heavy rain falling over his head.

 He had been rejected. As a romantic partner and possibly as a friend. What the hell. He had even been rejected as a visitor in Arthur’s home.

 At first, he tried to stay calm, to not lose his hopes...

 "And when will you come and look for me?" he asked nervously.

 “I can’t say that.” Arthur simply replied. As if that answer really seemed enough in his eyes.

 Alfred had to bite his lower lip to restrain himself from crying. He barely managed to speak something after that.

 "Can... Can we still be friends, at least?" he asked in a small voice that was all he had left in his throat. "I'm sorry if my feelings bother you so much! I just thought...!”

 "Alfred..." Arthur spoke in a soft voice, gently grasping his shoulders. He was trying to comfort Alfred, even though he was still crying himself and that, somehow, hurt Alfred even more. "Your feelings don’t bother me. Far from it. However... for reasons I’m not able to explain, I need to ask you to leave. It’s something essential for my happiness, Alfred. I know it's awful on my part to not explain something like that, but I need you to trust me. Do it for me, please. Trust me that no matter when or if we will meet each other again, I’ll always keep you in my heart.”

 Alfred couldn’t understand. He simply couldn’t. How could he regard that request as anything other than a severe rejection of his feelings?

 He shook his head with tearful eyes. He didn’t want to leave Arthur.

 Arthur let out a deep sigh.

 "You must have noticed that there is something strange about this castle and my own existence, Alfred," he tried to explain patiently to Alfred. "That's because I-"  

 In the middle of that sentence, Arthur was struck by a violent coughing, which left a small trail of blood dripping from his mouth, staining his chin and the grass.

 "E-Excuse me..." he said breathlessly, while Alfred was still watching him in silence, bewildered by what had happened. "I-I... I can’t explain any more than I have already said..."

 One thing was clear to Alfred at that moment. What just had happened to Arthur was related to something completely out of their control. Probably something magical.

 There was something stopping Arthur from explaining what was happening. All he could do was ask Alfred to leave and make sure he was happy like that. He was physically unable to make any promises or give any more explanations than that.

 Alfred had to make a choice at that moment. Even without knowing all the facts, should he trust the little Arthur had told him? Was he supposed to just walk away, believing that he was doing the best for Arthur and hoping that Arthur would go after him someday...?

If that was the case...

Then, he would do it.

He knew that Arthur was a kind and yet extremely blunt person. If Arthur wanted to reject him, he would probably do it in the clearest way possible so that Alfred wouldn’t have hopeless expectations. For bad and for good, that was just the kind of person he was.

The Arthur he knew would never end their friendship on a whim. He wasn’t the type of person who played with other people’s feelings.

All that said, if Arthur was telling Alfred that he had to leave and wait for him... If he was saying that it would be a really good and important thing to him and that he couldn’t really explain why... Then, he probably really meant it.

Alfred had to believe in him and leave, trusting that after all they had built together, if Arthur ever had a chance to do so, he would go after him.

 “It's all right.” Alfred sighed deeply, taking Arthur's hands from his shoulders. He felt absolutely tired. It was like ten years had passed during the last couple of minutes. "I'll leave now."

 “Alfred, I’m so...”

 "You don’t have to say anything.” Alfred answered in a lethargic voice, waving a hand in front of his face to dismiss his apologies. "You need me to do it for you, right? Maybe I'm breaking a curse or something by leaving you. It doesn’t matter, though. I want you to be happy, so I'll do it. Even if I never see you again, I will at least be able to know deep in my heart that I did what was best for the person I loved. It's my moment to be heroic, I suppose.” he let out a sad laugh.

 Even if he was the one who said it, it was still hard not to hear Arthur shouting at the very last second for him to wait, to come back or simply know that he loved him as well, as he rode his horse, leaving the castle without looking back.

 

* * *

 

 

Alfred was the first of his brothers to arrive this time. When the servants asked him where his fiancé was, Alfred shrugged his shoulders and entered the castle without further explanation. He went straight to his room without even talking to his parents.

He didn’t care about any of that, honestly. What good politeness would do for him, anyway? Arthur was probably right. His father didn’t want him to have the throne. Knowing that did hurt a bit but no more than it hurt to know that Alfred wouldn’t be able to return to Arthur’s castle anymore.

For a long time, Alfred lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling completely hollow inside, until someone knocked on the door. Alfred thought for a moment of how wonderful it would have been if Arthur had come for a surprise visit and apologized for what had happened in their last meeting, however it was just one of the servants. He came to inform Alfred that his brothers and their brides had arrived and that everyone was waiting for him for lunch.

Matt and Alan's brides were equally beautiful and bland in Alfred's eyes. Yes, they both had a charming personality and were very careful about their appearance, but they were still strangers to his brothers and that was very noticeable. They were clearly shy in that environment, forcing themselves to show the best side of their personalities during the meal and still calling their brothers by their full name every time.

Alfred couldn’t help but wonder how different that lunch would go with Arthur at the table. They both would subtly make inside jokes at each other and Alfred could discreetly pass on the vegetables he didn’t want to eat for Arthur. Arthur would never laugh at his father's unfunny jokes out of politeness. In fact, he would probably roll his eyes as he listened to them.

Artie was truly something special.

His father interrupted this thoughts by asking him:

"Alfred, when will your fiancé arrive? They’re pretty late”, something in his voice kinda hinted an ‘as expected’ in the end.

Alfred set the cutlery aside, filled his lungs with air, and opened his mouth to explain a long story.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Something unbelievable happened!” one of the servants suddenly entered the dinner hall, out of breath with a almost haunted expression.. “Pardon me disturb your meal, but an unbelievable visitor is here!”

Unbelievable, eh?

This made Alfred think again of his previously discarded hypothetical scenario in which Arthur would have come to the castle to apologize to him in person. That could be it! A talking cat would certainly be an unbelievable sight. He felt a twinge of hope reach his heart for a moment.

"Who could be so important to interrupt us, you insolent fool?!” The king shouted impatiently.

“The Prince of Hearts!” the servant immediately answered.

??????

Wait a minute. The Prince of Hearts??? Hadn’t Hearts mysteriously disappeared a few years ago?

Everyone got up from the table at the same time, equally astounded. ‘That is impossible!’ Alfred's father pointed out, yet the servant kept insisting that the mysterious visitor was undoubtedly the Prince of Hearts. Then, his father told the servant to bring the supposed prince and, to everyone’s surprise, especially Alfred... The Prince of Hearts actually appeared.

He was wearing the typical clothes of his lineage and a brooch on his chest that indicated his standing in the royal family. He looked way too familiar to Alfred. He seemed quite different wearing such formal attire, but there was no way Alfred wouldn’t recognize that face and those eyebrows...

"Hello." Arthur bowed to the royal family. "Forgive me for interrupting you. May I speak to prince Alfred, please?”

Of course, Alfred's whole family was freaking out at such a scene. However, no one was freaking out more than Alfred himself. It was... It was the middle of the day! Arthur should be in his cat form! And wait, he was the Prince of Hearts?! What?!

"Who the hell are you?!” Alfred pointed angrily at Arthur. He had no idea who the person in front of him really, really was.

"How could you have forgotten the person to whom you have confessed your love!" Arthur said angrily, his face burning with shame.

"WHAT?!" Alfred's parents shouted in unison, as their brothers made faces absurdly scandalized and their brides fanned themselves as not to faint.

Seeing that scene, Arthur had to admit...

"Okay, maybe I have some things to explain.” he said with a vaguely guilty expression.

It was right about time!

 

* * *

 

 Arthur, or rather Prince Arthur Maurice Kirkland I of the kingdom of Hearts, told a long and really crazy story for some forty minutes. He started by explaining how a few years ago, in his teenager days, he earned a reputation for playing with the hearts of his suitors, giving them hope and then publicly rejecting them in the most humiliating way possible. This was a big joke in the whole kingdom and his people enjoyed making bets on how the new suitor would be rejected this time.

One day, while he was adjusting his clothes with the help of his seamstress in his room, accompanied by his royal dogs, Arthur rejected in his usual mocking manner a powerful wandering wizard who had come to court him.

The wizard, who knew of Arthur’s reputation, wasn’t found of the idea of becoming the kingdom’s joke. Therefore, he transformed the seamstress who was with Arthur into a spider, Arthur's dogs into pathetic miniatures of what they were before, and all the inhabitants of Arthur's kingdom into cats. He did it as a show of power, as an intimidation of what might happen to Arthur if he insisted in refusing to marry him. Despite being scared, Arthur still refused to marry him. He would never marry a man who tried to won his hand by intimidation.

After hearing it, the wizard tried to turn him into a cat as well but his powers were very weak at this point and he only had enough energy to make Arthur turn into a cat during daytime.

The only way to revert the curse to the whole kingdom would be, ironically, if Arthur made someone trust him wholeheartedly. He would have to test the person's trust by sending them away indefinitely. If the person agreed to leave for his sake and continued to have feelings for him, the curse would be broken.

It seemed simple in theory and Arthur said as much, mocking the wizard because old habits die hard. So the wizard added a detail to the curse that if Arthur spoke of it, even if very vaguely, his body would suffer horrible effects. After that, Arthur got completely quiet, figuring out that it was better to just let the wizard leave with his evil laugh and satisfied ego, before he added more complicated details to the curse.

Alfred was the one who got to break this curse. By declaring his love and agreeing to wait for Arthur to come to him, without further explanation of what was happening, Alfred proved that he trusted Arthur and the curse got lifted. Now, everything was back to normal...

"My dog hasn’t returned to normal..." the king retorted.

"Technically, he wasn’t my dog anymore, so I think he must have dodged that reversal spell.” Arthur simply replied. He was so casual about that whole story. "Any more questions?"

... Alfred's mind was spinning. Gosh, there were so many things he could ask at that moment.

Still, only one seemed truly fundamental:

"What are your feelings for me, Arthur?" he asked, staring into Arthur's eyes, as if there was no one else around them.

Arthur gave him a discreet smile, which was simultaneously a little shy and a little amused.

“It isn’t obvious? As soon as my curse was lifted, I immediately came after you, even if there were hundred things I need to solve in my kingdom now. Only a fool in love would do that.”

That was all he needed to hear. Alfred took his hands, smiling back at the person he loved.

"You could just say ‘ I love you’, you know.”

"Unlike you, I still have a bit of decency.” Arthur replied uneasily, indicating Alfred's family with a nod and a pointed glance.

Oh, right! Alfred's family was there!

“Oh, hey, everybody!” Alfred turned to them, wrapping an arm around Arthur's shoulders. "This is my fiancé!"

Obviously, Alfred won the competition of who brought the most impressive fiancé. To be fair to the ladies, there was nothing wrong with them, but it wouldn’t be easy to overcome a suitor who was the missing prince of a kingdom that had fallen into decay overnight due to the spell of a vengeful wizard who had made that same prince turn into a talking cat for most of the day for years.

Despite feeling good about winning, Alfred refused to accept his victory prize. After all, he hadn’t talked to Arthur about the test and he felt bad about using his newly acquired relationship for that kind of benefit.

Arthur, for his part, said that he wouldn’t mind if their relationship benefited Alfred that way, however he also made a point of saying that Alfred didn’t need to become the king of Spades because he would already have the throne of Hearts to manage.

Seeing Arthur saying to Alan ‘you can keep this kingdom’s crown for you, we don’t need it’ and the absolute shock in his father’s face made Alfred fall in love with Arthur even more.

Alfred and Arthur got engaged and married in a few months, and Alfred moved to the castle he'd been taking care of for so long. The Kingdom of Hearts, though ruined by the curse, grew over time, thanks to the union of its inhabitants and their devotion to Prince Arthur, who had taken care of everyone while they were all cats. Alfred's inventions also helped along the way and, with a little investment applied on them, they made the kingdom soon become a true technological reference to many other places.

There was a lot of work to do there and, as Alfred had imagined, a lifetime wouldn’t be enough for them to repair that place on their own. Fortunately, they were no longer alone. They had the support of their subjects and Alfred's family.

Life was going so well, Alfred even felt they were ready for children, but since they were both men and couldn’t have children, Alfred asked them to adopt a pet.

“Another dog for my collection?” Arthur asked, smiling.

“Nah, I'd rather have a cat.” Alfred smirked.

"What! You said dogs were your favorites!" Arthur exclaimed in a rather accusatory tone.

Dude, hadn’t he learned yet that people change their minds?

“Yes, but I ended up seeing that cats can be very cute!” Alfred laughed, pulling his husband cheeks. "I kinda miss hugging your fluffy version.”

“Oh, heavens. Anything but a cat. I despite cats so much now.” Arthur groaned, covering his face with one hand.

"My dear Arthur Kirkland!" Alfred put his hand on his chest and gasped, pretending to look shocked. "Do I need to teach you about the perks of being a cat person? I can do it, you know. It would be a long story, though. About thirty-eight pages, I think!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so, so much for reading this story!!! If you enjoyed it, please show your support by writing a review or giving me a kudo! I truly hope you had fun with it and that you will check the usukustwiceperyear blog to see the rest of the event!^^
> 
> Also, my sincere thanks to littlemaple for her help with revising my translation!!!! She truly helped me a lot!!! 
> 
> PS: Yep, I changed some things in "The White Cat" story that I thought would be a little fucked up for a fic, like the part in which the main character beheads the cat so it can be free of its curse and the weird-ass part that the cat stayed the whole time as a cat, until she got rid of her curse, and they still fallen in love. lol


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